Our next Community Spotlight of 2023 is now live! This month we are featuring Noababoa, a talented 3D artist whose redesigns of Samus’s different suits have become very popular. These include revamps of the Power, Varia, Gravity and Fusion Suits, with more on the way. Be sure to give his spotlight a read, and follow him on his social platforms to keep up with his work!
Mario movie actors want a Metroid movie next
Last week, we reported on a Gizmodo interview with Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, the voices of Mario and Luigi in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, who both expressed interest in a Metroid movie being made. Now, in a new interview from GameSpot, Pratt, Day and Seth Rogen (voice of Donkey Kong) all reiterated they want Metroid to be adapted next.
Rogen, proposing a “Nintendo Cinematic Universe” (NCU) said: “I always thought Metroid was cool. I don’t know how it fits into this world necessarily, but I always thought that would make a cool movie.” Pratt and Day also said a Metroid film would be “cool”.
A live-action Metroid film was in development in 2005, but only made it as far as a treatment before being cancelled. Since then, a number of Hollywood actors and producers have called for Samus to come to the big screen, most notably Brie Larson, who’s volunteered to portray our favorite bounty hunter. If the Mario movie is a success, and it certainly appears to be, maybe Nintendo will revisit the idea of adapting Metroid.
Source: GameSpot
Chris Pratt and Charlie Day call for a Metroid movie
Mario and Luigi themselves, Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, recently gave an interview to Gizmodo about The Super Mario Bros. Movie. One of the questions they were asked was, if the movie is a success and Nintendo decides to adapt their other games to film, which ones would they want to see? Day said he and Pratt had talked about Metroid, and added, “How interesting and creepy and cool a Metroid [movie] would be?”
Many fans will remember a live-action movie directed by John Woo was in the works for a time, before being cancelled when Nintendo didn’t approve of the intended story. Since then, a few people in Hollywood have said they want to direct or star in a Metroid movie, such as Brie Larson. Maybe if the Mario movie goes down well, the chances of seeing Samus on the big screen will increase!
Source: Gizmodo
Feature: Metroid Prime Remastered Review
Our next feature is now available, and it’s a review of Metroid Prime Remastered written by team member Leon. They evaluate the updated visuals and controls of the game, how the gameplay holds up after twenty years, and whether it is a worthy update to a timeless classic. You can check out Leon’s review at the link below. We were provided a day of release code by Nintendo for this review.
Interview: Bruce Hunt
The Shinesparkers team is thrilled to present an interview with Australian filmmaker Bruce Hunt, the director of the live-action commercial for Metroid Fusion! Bruce shares how he got into film production, and provides behind the scenes details for Parasite, including where it was filmed, the animation of the enemies, and who played Samus.
Earlier this week, we uploaded two high-definition versions of Parasite, provided by Bruce, to our YouTube channel. One of them is a director’s cut with extra shots of Samus and the SA-X, which was an amazing find! Links to them are at the bottom of the interview page. We hope you enjoy them, and the interview!
Metroid Prime Remastered nearly outsells Hogwarts Legacy in the UK
A new report from GamesIndustry.biz has revealed that physical copies of Metroid Prime Remastered are selling extremely well in the United Kingdom. In fact, as of this writing, it is only 1,000 units behind Hogwarts Legacy, which is currently the top-selling physical game in the UK for four consecutive weeks. Remastered received a physical release in Europe only four days ago, and has been available digitally for a month, so this is hugely significant. It’s now the fourth biggest physical launch of a Metroid game in the country, and the second biggest physical release of the year, surpassing Fire Emblem Engage and the Dead Space remake.
Source: GamesIndustry
Episode 27 – Kit and Krysta
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For our second podcast of 2023, we are joined by Kit and Krysta, the former hosts of Nintendo Minute, who now host The Kit & Krysta Podcast! They answer our burning questions about Nintendo’s approach to marketing the Metroid series, and we share our reactions to Metroid Prime Remastered, which was announced and released only one day before our recording. We also answer our mailbag on the question of which Metroid game we’d save if we could only have one.
Podcast is hosted by Amanda, with team members Darren and Roy.
00:00 – Introductions
00:54 – Interview: Kit and Krysta
36:19 – Topic: Our Thoughts on Metroid Prime Remastered
45:03 – Mailbag
49:12 – Bloopers
The fanart contest submission and AM2R ending mentioned in this podcast:
Metroid Fusion comes to Nintendo Switch Online March 9th
There’s been a second major announcement today in Metroid news: Metroid Fusion is coming to Nintendo Switch Online on March 9th, exactly a week from today! (in Eastern time, where I’m publishing from anyway) Nintendo announced this minutes ago with a trailer on their YouTube channel, which you can watch below.
Metroid Prime Remastered icons come to Nintendo Switch Online for a limited time
Icons based on Metroid Prime Remastered are now available through Nintendo Switch Online until March 9th. There are six and they each cost 10 Platinum Points. The icons feature Samus, the Morph Ball, Meta Ridley and a Metroid. Notably, the banner image says “Wave 1”, implying that more might be on the way. We will update you if this turns out to be the case.
Metroid Prime developers criticize Remastered credits
Original Metroid Prime engineers Zoid Kirsch and Jack Mathews have criticized Metroid Prime Remastered for omitting the original game’s credits. The remaster instead credits the new Retro Studios employees, and staff at external partner studios, for their work on the game, while adding this general credit to the end: Based on the work of Metroid Prime / Original Nintendo GameCube and Wii Version Development Staff. This marks a change from Metroid Prime Trilogy, which included the original credits in addition to new ones.
Additionally, Ashley Rochelle, an Environment Artist who was hired for the remaster, found that she was credited under special thanks in Remastered despite doing significant work on the environments, including the Hall of the Elders. She said that she and other people who left Retro before the credits were finished got listed under special thanks instead of receiving full credit for their work. She also claimed that at least one artist was completely left out, as was anyone who was laid off during development.
This is not the first Metroid game to have its crediting practices criticized by people who worked on it. Metroid Dread also had this issue, where at least three developers found they were not credited since they did not work on the game for at least a year, per MercurySteam policy.
While it might be that this is the result of an internal policy at Retro Studios, we believe that this is wrong. Two of the original developers, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson and Andy O’Neil, have since died, and it is imperative that we remember their work and contributions to the Metroid Prime series, along with everyone else who is still with us. We hope that Retro Studios will make this right by releasing an update that adds the original credits, and acknowledges new developers’ roles appropriately.
You can read the original Metroid Prime’s credits on Wikitroid at the link here.
Source: Zoid Kirsch/Jack Mathews/Ashley Rochelle